New Pasadena Shriners Children Medical Center Nearly Completed, Celebrates Cornerstone Ceremony Thursday

Pasadena’s new $77 million Shriners for Children Medical Center will be the site of a cornerstone laying and dedication ceremony Thursday as construction moves into final stages of what the Shriners say will be a state-of-the-art facility that represents a significant departure from the concepts that define traditional hospitals.

The facility will replace the Shriners aging 65-year-old Children’s Hospital located on Geneva Street near Koreatown in Los Angeles.

The new 75,000 square foot medical center located on Fair Oaks Ave. just south of the Huntington Memorial Hospital will boast specialized resources supporting children’s health care services in areas of orthopaedics, burn care, spinal cord Injury, and cleft lip and palate — regardless of the family’s ability to pay.

Los Angeles Shriners Hospital leadership, Pasadena city officials and special guests will perform a traditional cornerstone ceremony at the site Thursday morning. The hospital is set to open for patients in June.

“We’re very enthused in moving to Pasadena. This new medical center really furthers our new collaboration between Shriners For Children Medical Center and Huntington Hospital,” said Shriners Hospitals for Children Administrator Lou Lazatin. “There is no facility of this kind that is totally dedicated to kids. This is really to serve the children of the San Gabriel Valley,” Lazatin added.

The medical center is situated on a two acre site at the corner of Fair Oaks Avenue and Hurlbut Street and will join 22 specialty Shriners pediatric centers across the nation.
The outpatient care facility will include an ambulatory surgical center to house Shriners Hospitals for Children Medical Center’s clinical, diagnostic, outpatient surgery and rehabilitation units, which will help bring exceptional specialty pediatric care to children and families in the greater Pasadena area and across the Southwest.

“It’s really playful and it’s designed for children to make them comfortable, make them feel at home and also just to have fun so it does not have any feel of a hospital or a medical center,” said Lazatin about the overall colorful decor and features like an interactive lobby.

According to an earlier report, eighty-five percent of services provided by the Shriners Hospitals for Children occurs before and after surgery, which is a primary design element for the medical center.

“From a public health perspective, I consider it to be a significant benefit to the population here. Shriners is world renowned for doing incredible work working to reduce disease and disability in youth populations and addressing health challenges free of charge. They are bringing an incredible resource to the greater Pasadena area so I can’t help but imagine what the impact will be to the region,” said Pasadena Public Health Department Director Michael Johnson.

“A partnership with an organization like Shriners’ now that they will be here in town will certainly be an objective of ours,” added Johnson.

The new facility will feature its own Pediatric Orthotics and Prosthetics (POPS) clinic in-house, which specializes in fabricating and providing upper and lower orthotic and prosthetic services for children with a variety of congenital and acquired limb differences, diseases, infections and traumas.

“It’s basically a primary specialty clinic for our physicians who are really surgeons for orthopedics and plastics,” said Lazatin.

The service area for the Los Angeles Shriners Hospital for Children primarily covers Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona.

“We have children flying in from these southwestern states and we also have children coming in from northern Mexico. We’ve very pleased about really being the only medical center dedicated to children serving the children of the San Gabriel Valley.

The new facility will also have rooms dedicated to virtual doctor visits called tele-medicine, where doctors can set up preliminary consultations for children who live far away from the area.

“We see kids from all over the world,” explained Lazatin who mentioned that children from as a far away as Syria, Jordan, South Korea and Ethiopia who have utilized medical services.

The architectural firms involved in the development of the medical center are L.A. based CO Architects and Portland based SRG Partnership with construction performed by BPR Construction.

The Los Angeles Shriners Hospital leadership, national and local patient ambassadors alongside the California Grand Lodge, Imperial Board and the Chairman of the Board will perform a traditional cornerstone ceremony Thursday to celebrate the transition into the new facility.
The dedication ceremony will feature a Masonic cornerstone ritual is probably the only Masonic ritual that the public will ever see conducted, according to a press release.

The dedication ceremony is the symbolic laying of the cornerstone, that which supports the entire structure.

Shriners for Children Medical Center Dedication Ceremony is set to take place Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. onsite at the new location at 909 S. Fair Oaks.

Lunch and refreshments will follow the ceremony.

For more information about the Shriners Hospitals for Children, visit www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.